Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 368 COC

I was in the Red Room once more. At the 7 o’clock door I looked around to the other world entrances. I had known Marvel was this door thanks to a World Choice. In the Manga Hall this would have been One Punch Man. A manga with impossibly strong heroes and villains. The 6 o’clock door was my exit, so I looked to the 5 o’clock. 

“You have to be DC,” I said walking up to the door. A world filled with super heroes, not near as many as Marvel, they were still synonymous with one another. It only made sense that they were mirror images of one another. I thought about it and decided to find out who I was in this next world.

Opening the door I stepped in and was met with darkness. Slowly the scenery around me began to brighten. I was in a massive room and someone in a blood red robe was running at me. I instinctively punched them, throwing them back. 

More men and women in similar robes moving toward me I noticed a man above me. He was in a blue, white, and yellow skin-tight suit, flying around the room punching other men in robes that were on upper balconies. 

The man looked familiar, but instead of trying to guess who it was I noticed a large puddle of blood a few paces away. A man’s upper and lower half was on either side of the blood pool. It appeared someone had ripped him in half. Looking into the thin puddle, between the gut and viscera, I saw my reflection. 

I was Weston Walker. 18 years old, I had lived a mostly normal life. That was until I was 9 and my mother was killed. It was a freak accident, of course. The men that attacked us were going for my dad, Bill Walker, aka The Immortal. 

I didn’t know this at the time, but my dad was really old. At least hundreds of years old. With super strength, flight, regenerative powers, and immortality, he had lived to see a lot in his life. He was an impossibly strong man. Black hair, thick beard, huge muscles. He had been a pretty good dad, up until my mom’s death at least. 

When I was a kid scientists had hired a mercenary group to capture him. They had been trying to find him so they could study him. My mom was caught in the cross-hairs. My dad only needed his bare hands to rip the attackers apart, limb by limb. After that he wasn’t the same. Leaving me with my mom’s sister, I stayed with her, and didn’t see my dad again until he was on TV. 

As one of the founders of the Guardians of the Globe he was considered the unofficial leader. The strongest and oldest human, or so he said, my dad was a hero to millions. I didn’t see him for a long time after that. It wasn’t until I awoke my own super power that he showed up. 

My ability had kicked in one day. I had been playing catch and happened to catch a ball I had no chance to get. At first I had thought that I was simply moving super fast. Like the Red Rush in this world. It wasn’t as simple as that though. New to the power I could only manage bursts of speed. And with testing it was found that I was actually speeding up time for myself. Only for a half-second, but enough to give me a slight edge in a fight. My Aunt called my dad and he showed up on my doorstep for the first time in years. Not to catch up or apologize. No, it was to begin my training as a superhero. 

Day in and out he pushed me beyond my physical limits for 5 months straight. I was allowed to join in on field work, and grew to enjoy being a hero to the world. I had my own secret identity, and had recently graduated high school. 

That morning we were called to a mysterious group that had been on the radar recently. Since there was always some group popping up here or there that caused trouble my dad decided to check it out. And since I was still under the probationary period with the Guardians of the Globe I was stuck checking them out with him. 

The new group was called the Children of Cthulhu, which we had referred to as COC. They were a mysterious group that had a huge jump in recruitment lately. A recent influx of disappearances in the area, we had gotten a tip about a weird group working out of an abandoned cathedral. When we arrived at their hideout all hell broke loose. 

Below the cathedral they used as their hideout was a giant room. Inside the room, cult members had all been chanting and praying to a magical red glowing ellipsoid. The oval shaped blood red floating deathtrap had only been about 8 feet tall when we arrived. Currently it was 15 feet tall. 

As the memories settled another cultist jumped for me. I breathed out and activated the part of my brain that sped up my time. Like being dunked in water my skin tingled, and I sped up. Allowing his fist to meet me. The man moved slowly as I focused some Nen in my hand and hit him as the notification came. 

“Fucking hell,” I said as my time slowed down to normal. 

At first I was surprised, but then again, DC really didn’t have all that many super powered people. Superman was of course the strongest, but this world had Viltrumites. Each as strong as Superman, or so I guessed since there was never a crossover comic. Invincible sported hundreds of super strong aliens and humans alike. Marvel had just as many strong foes. I guessed Marvel and Invincible were considered harder than DC.

“Weston!” My dad yelled. I ducked down as a blood red beam shot out at me. Pulling out a mass of my lifeforce I threw the Nen at whoever shot at me. They were thrown back and the futuristic weapon they used was flung away. The Immortal continued fighting another few from above, but the fight was mostly wrapping up. 

Walking to the center of the circular room the blood red ellipsoid began to pulse. I used Gyo on it. There was some lifeforce there, but using Observation Haki it was like looking into the pit of doom. The Energy was actually black. Normally it was a white or weak gray, but what I felt from the mass was pure evil. 

“I think the ellipse is made of blood,” I said as my dad landed next to me. Below the floating oval of death were intricately drawn circles that were written in blood as well. 

“I’m guessing it’s failing,” my dad growled. 

“Oh no, it’s growing in power,” I said as the Spiritual Energy began to increase more. Darker power leaked from it. 

“How the hell would you know?” He asked. My dad was more than kind of a jackass. Living for a long time he didn’t have much patience for anything, let alone believing a rookie like me. I dropped it. “You did good, but you need to have eyes everywhere. What would have happened if I hadn’t warned you about the blast there?” 

“Would have dodged it anyway,” I said. Not like I hadn’t noticed, just didn’t bother to move out of the way until the blast was fired. 

“Hey, this is serious. You have a power, but not mine. You could die with the slightest misstep, boy,” the Immortal said. My hero name was Haste, which was pretty badass in my book. We were on the job so he never called me anything besides boy. 

Old me secretly hated the guy. Abandoning me for all those years, I had assumed he was disappointed in me. Not showing up until my super power awoke, I thought he just did it out of some need for more firepower. But with my Haki I could feel the love he had for me. Instead of arguing as old me would have done, I nodded. 

My dad hesitated, he had expected me to argue. “Uh, right,” he said with a frown. “G-good job.” He really wasn’t the best at this sort of thing. But I was glad he tried. “Let’s um, try to clean this circle-” As he said that we were thrown back as the ellipsoid exploded outward. 

—

Ringing in my ear I woke up a few seconds later to see that a giant green tentacle arm was coming out of the now blue glowing elliptical portal. As my mind registered what was going on the tentacle wrapped around my foot. 

“Weston!” My dad yelled, flying for me. I was picked up and wasn’t anywhere strong enough to fight this beast. My mind registering the Spiritual Energy around me. I felt it all as it happened. My dad moving at an immense speed, the tentacle pulling me into the portal even faster, an impossible speed for this body to react to. 

“Dad!” Was all I got out as I sped up time for myself. Everything else moving at half speed, I saw my leg was already pulled into the portal, my dad was reaching toward me ever so slowly, fear and regret in his eyes as the wind of his flight caused tears to form in his eyes. Then the split second I added to my time passed and I was sucked into the portal. My dad’s face the last thing I saw of my world. 

Immediately pulled into a new place the portal shut right in front of my eyes, my fingertips narrowly missing being cut off from the portal winking out. I felt the monster before I saw it. A huge mass of tentacles all around me. I didn’t hesitate to yell, “Handicap Dismiss!” 

I felt my Haki and Nen increase two-fold as the quest appeared. 

“Fuck!” I yelled. The quest was too good for something easy. As my mind reeled, the tentacle pulling me began to slow. I was being brought to a giant maw of a mouth. I had thought the tentacle was big, but no, it was simply the smallest the monster had. The only one that could fit in the portal. As I looked into the conglomeration of tentacles the pit of a mouth was about 50 feet across, thin blade-like teeth meeting at a center point my death would not be good, and my World Escape was down for a while yet. 

I charged my hand with Nen. Pulling my upper body up to my foot was a great struggle for some reason. I managed to touch the appendage, slicing into the thick tentacle it didn’t bust like I had hoped. A mere gash appeared and blue blood poured out. 

I cursed, focusing my lifeforce into my pointer and ring finger. I used a Nen Blast. The blast cut deeply into the tentacle. The monster let me go as I was sprayed with blue blood. Freefalling through the air I began to breathe in and out quickly to try to calm myself. A white fog below me I couldn’t help crying out as I fell. Moving far faster toward the ground than I was used to I almost made it to the fog when another tentacle grabbed me. My leg about dislocated from the sudden halting of the world’s gravity’s pull. This tentacle was stronger than the last. I focused Armament Haki to prevent the tentacle from crushing my bones. 

Dragging me back up to it’s mouth I cut this one with another Nen Blast, but 2 more tentacles grabbed my legs causing them to almost do the splits. I was going starting to think I would prefer getting eaten than some fucked up tentacle porn ending that was playing through my mind. But like hell I was going to let this be the end. 

“Summon!” I yelled out. Nibi appeared just ahead and I grabbed her.

“Nibi, I need you or we are fucked!” I yelled. Looking up to the cat, which was actually down, we locked eyes. Long seconds I waited for her to make a decision, then she began to grow. Wider and wider she jumped up to become bigger than a horse. I had to use the last of my Nen to strengthen myself enough to hold onto her. Keeping her in the air below me. 

A black ball of chakra formed at her mouth. As it grew it began to glow blue with her flames. With a great boom it shot from her mouth striking through the tentacles and blowing them away. Both of us falling to the fog I yelled out in triumph as I moved to sit on top of her. She turned in the air, more tentacles shot toward us. She spit intense blue flames that were as thin as lasers at them. 

We made it to the fog this time. Our view blocked, I panicked again. Sending out my area of Observation Haki to a wider range, we were speeding up far more than I expected. I felt the ground and as I yelled out to warn Nibi we hit it with a great boom. The cat didn’t hesitate though, running away we moved past the tips of tentacles that kept the Cthulhu monster standing above the fog. 

The wind roared in my ears as Nibi picked up speed. I never loved the cat more than that moment. She had literally saved my life, and I would do whatever she needed. As the last of the tentacles was dodged she continued to run in an almost lazy gait. 

I received a couple of notifications. 

“Fuck,” I said. “Let’s find somewhere to rest.” I decided to wait to use the Pet Evolution until we were farther away. My heart was still pounding far more than I was used to. There was something wrong with this planet. My body didn’t feel the same. I raised my hand to hold my head but noticed it was a struggle to get it up. 

“This world has a higher gravity,” I said, amazed. I guessed I was over 2 times my normal weight. As my adrenaline began to lessen I felt the differences of the gravity. My body was heavier of course, but it was more than that. Able to focus on my body parts I could feel my heart struggling to get used to the increased power it had to exert to pump blood to my body. My skin felt tingly as it was pulled down more. Hell, even my hair felt heavy. 

“What the fuck did I get us into this time?” I asked, but Nibi didn’t answer. Running on into the mist I felt a tentacle ahead and guided her away. Desperate to find somewhere safe to hide for the time being.